Last night at bedtime my son wanted to give me a kiss on the lips. He grabbed my face and dove in, lips pursed, a maniacal expression on his face.

“No way!” I screeched in alarm, turning my face away and pinning down his octopus hands.

“Why not, mommy?” He gave me his best Cute Puppy Dog Look. “People kiss on the lips. They do.”

“Because for one thing I have a cold and I don’t want you to get it and for another thing, we are not kiss-on-the-mouth people,” I say, feeling pretty darn good about this explanation. “Now lie down and go to sleep.”

He put his head down on the pillow but (more…)

After reading Mommy Confessions Michelle Wolfson’s lists of “Things I Could Do Before I Had Kids That I Can’t Do Now” and “Things I Can Do Now That I Couldn’t Do Before I Became a Mom”, I decided to take her up on her invitation and create my own. So here they are…

Things I Could Do Before I Had Kids That I Can’t Do Now…

Wear a bikini.

Stay up past 11pm without an afternoon nap.

Talk on the phone without being interrupted.

Leave the house empty-handed with nothing but keys and a wallet.

Eat cookies or candy openly in the middle of the day (although not doing this could be a real positive for my waistline).

Finish a meal at a restaurant without a visit (or three) to the potty.

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My son had his first legitimate beef with me last weekend. Don’t get me wrong, he has boldly proclaimed, “I’m mad”, when I’ve given him a timeout or told him he couldn’t watch TV, but this was the first time that he had a real case against me.

My husband had taken him to his swim lesson on Saturday morning and then they picked up lunch. I was getting a haircut and by the time I came home, they had already eaten and my son was taking a nap. So, I fixed myself something to eat and noticed a half-eaten bag of chips on the counter, which I finished off, not thinking twice about it.

An hour later, my son woke up and the three of us were in the kitchen chatting. And that’s when the conversation went sour. (more…)

I’d really like a report card.

I’d love a quarterly review.

I’d do almost anything for a tiny bit of FEEDBACK.

I just want someone with a little authority to tell me if I am, or if I am not, doing a good job as a mom. And my husband doesn’t count. (more…)

Computers were supposed to free us from the paper pile-up. Instead, we print out more than ever, generating huge stacks of files and investing record amounts of money to store our paper. We buy paper, file folders, labels, and file cabinets; and still the paper stacks overwhelm us. Home organizing is big business, and TV shows showing you how to clean up your act abound. But you can free yourself from the paper trap by using your computer to get organized.

GO DIGITAL
Let your computer be your filing cabinet. Larger hard drives, cheaper scanners, and digital cameras give you the tools you need to convert your paper messes into digital order. Take a look at the piles on your desk and the overstuffed filing cabinet. You probably have financial documents, letters, hobby papers, magazines, old college research papers, and the like. Most of these can be converted to digital files, leaving you with more physical space in your home.

You can scan copies of bills, social security statements, bank statements, check stubs, old tax returns, magazine articles, letters, children’s artwork, equipment manuals; in short, anything on (more…)

Around 11:40 AM on any given Saturday I start to get antsy.

I pace around the house and hover around the back door, hoping to catch a glimpse of his car pulling into the driveway.

The dog becomes aware of my sheer excitement and starts to follow me around, tail wagging.

The girls sense that they are about to have Daddy to themselves for 36 solid hours and are giddy with laughter.

It’s my favorite time of the week. I listen for one sound only, the chime on the security system to alert me that Superman has entered the building ….. (more…)

Last week, a fact really hit home for me – I’m about to have another baby. Of course, I’ve known this for quite some time – roughly seven months now, but the reality of it hit me like a ton of bricks as I lay in a hospital bed hooked up to a fetal monitor with a cell phone pressed to my ear. (more…)

A favorite morning ritual of mine is the hot cup of green tea with honey interlude. I usually come home after dropping my son off at school, make myself a cup of tea, and drink it while checking my email. My favorite brand is Yogi Tea, because it tastes good and it comes in a cool box. I like the Green Tea Kombucha kind. Here’s what it says on the back of the box:

Our Green Tea Kombucha is inspired by a remedy dating back to ancient Russia, but updated for today’s lifestyle. This effective blend of green tea and kombucha is designed to enhance your immune system, fight fatigue and detoxify your body. Not to mention that simply saying “kom-boo-chaw” will make you smile. The good feelings continue with the antioxidant benefits inherent in green tea. Savor this distinctive herbal remedy while giving your body the tune-up it deserves.

Green Energy Tea

You can buy this stuff at the grocery store, at Target, or at Amazon.com. Their website is pretty cool, too!

I admit that one of the bigger concerns my husband and I had when deciding to start a family was what our little bundle of joy would do to our social life. Don’t get me wrong; our dance cards were never jam-packed every weekend. What I’m talking about is the simple act of sitting across a table from each other and sharing a yummy meal and some good conversation.

So when we became pregnant with our first, we were hell-bent on making sure this kid loved going out and trying new foods as much as we did, or at the very least, condition him to behave somewhat like a human being at a restaurant. I had seen well-behaved children in restaurants before – I was sure of it – so I knew that it wasn’t a complete anomaly. (more…)

I pretty much suck at making New Year’s resolutions. Well, let me clarify. I’m good at making them but I can’t keep them. Oh, I can keep them for a month or two, but invariably, I degenerate into my nasty old habits. For example, for the past ten years, I’ve resolved to lose weight. Guess what? I’ve gained weight every year. I’ve also resolved to exercise more. That one I’m still working on. I sort of have to renew that one every few weeks after I continually relapse back into my couch potato status. There was one successful resolution: I decided to give up my daily Coca-Cola habit. This one took me an entire 6 months to accomplish but I finally beat it down to one per week. So one success for a score of failures. Not the best record.

This year, however, I have a resolution that I think I can keep. I resolve to (more…)